


it's the end of the world as we know it (and I feel fine)

by seventhswan



Category: 999: Nine Hours Nine Persons Nine Doors - Fandom, Zero Escape (Video Games)
Genre: F/M, Gen, Post-Game, Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-02-15
Updated: 2014-02-15
Packaged: 2018-01-12 12:56:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 879
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1186465
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/seventhswan/pseuds/seventhswan
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Clover yanks on the back of her miniscule uniform skirt, jostling the handful of roses she’s using as a bridesmaid’s bouquet. </p><p>“Do I look respectable enough to be in a wedding?” she frets, eyes huge.</p>
            </blockquote>





	it's the end of the world as we know it (and I feel fine)

**Author's Note:**

> Set immediately after 999 (so spoilers for that game), ignores the Alice pick-up in the desert, and does not take into account any of the events of Virtue’s Last Reward. Everyone’s referred to by their codenames in here because I can’t get out of that habit.
> 
> Title from **It’s the End of the World as We Know It** by REM.

Clover drives like a women possessed.

“You have a licence, right?” Junpei yells from the back seat, hand clutching the top of his head as though he’s a grandma with a Sunday hat to keep on. All the SUV’s windows are rolled down as far as they’ll go, and the inside of the car is like a windtunnel. Junpei keeps having to spit out grains of sand every time he tries to speak.

“What?” Clover bawls, making an insane right turn and sending up a cresting spray of desert. Junpei widens his eyes at Lotus, who in lieu of a seat is crammed onto Seven’s lap. She still manages to sit like a queen, and when she pats the back of Junpei’s hand, feather-light, that’s regal, too.

|

As they crest over a sand dune, the city rises in front of them like smoke from a fire. It’s the middle of the night, the regular twinkle of the city lights like downed constellations, the glow they give off strangely hallucinatory and unreal, as though they’ve stepped into a painting.

“Oh my God,” Junpei says, quiet. It seems somehow insane that there are still people in the world, that the planet was still quietly turning while they were trapped in the research facility. There are hundreds, thousands, _millions_ of people out there who have no idea what the people in this car have been through. 

The car’s near silent, the wind long since died away to a chill breeze. It’s been cold for hours, but no-one has made a move to close the windows – the fresh air is too startling, too sweet to give up. Seven’s half asleep with his chin pillowed on Lotus’ shoulder, but she’s wide awake, her expression watchful.

From the passenger seat, Snake murmurs, almost under his breath, “Clover, what’s it like?”

In the rearview mirror, Junpei sees her tongue flick out to wet her lips.

“It’s beautiful, brother,” she says, quiet. “It’s so beautiful.”

|

Seven stops Junpei with a hand to the elbow when they stop the SUV for gas.

“I was thinkin’ –“ he begins, slanting a look at Lotus, who waves a go on hand –“well, _we_ were thinkin’.”

They’re all milling around the car in the gas station forecourt, stretching their legs while Snake pumps the gas, Clover hovering at his elbow. It’s empty, which Junpei is thankful for, because as a group they look bizarre. A schoolgirl in kneesocks, an exotic dancer in a sarong, a hulking policeman, an aristocratic young man wearing a monk’s robe, and some college kid, all filthy, all exhausted. It’s stupid, but Junpei half expects someone to stop them, as though anyone could look at them and know exactly what happened. 

When Seven finishes talking, Junpei claps him once on the back, firm. It feels odd, like he’s imitating someone in a movie, but he knows it’s the right thing to do.

Lotus smiles with half her mouth, but Junpei isn’t fooled. Her posture when she floats away to tell Clover makes it obvious.

“That’s great, Seven,” Junpei says. Seven shrugs uneasily.

“I know it might seem a little sudden, but -“ he takes off his hat and wrings it between his meaty hands, shrugging. “We could’ve been – we could’ve been –“

Over by the SUV Clover shrieks and Snake starts, dribbling a little gas on the forecourt floor. Clover throws her arms around Lotus, and over Clover’s shoulder Junpei can see Lotus close her eyes, and, after a second, hug back.

|

In the chapel, Clover yanks on the back of her miniscule uniform skirt, jostling the handful of roses she’s using as a bridesmaid’s bouquet.

“Do I look respectable enough to be in a wedding?” she frets, eyes huge. Junpei resists the urge to snort – the registrar’s dressed like Elvis, it was the only place open after two. In lieu of an answer, he slants a significant glance at Lotus, who’s still dressed in her open-busted dancer’s outfit. It’s woefully unhidden by the cheap, gauzy veil she and Clover managed to purchase from the same all-night florist who supplied the roses.

Clover giggles.

“Oh, Junpei,” she says, taking his proffered arm, “you’re _awful_.”

He’s grateful she doesn’t say anything else – anything about Akane, anything about being sorry. Junpei wants this moment, wants it so badly, the four of them clustered at the back of the chapel, Seven waiting at the front. This isn’t just a wedding, it’s a baptism – the moment they rejoin the world, the life they fought so hard for. Tonight, they’re born all over again, screaming and kicking and laughing with burning lungs.

When Junpei and Clover reach the steps and take their places next to Seven, Junpei turns to watch Snake walk Lotus up the aisle, so slow, so careful. She beams like Junpei has never seen, her face lit up like the sun.

“Would anyone like to say anything before we begin?” the registrar asks, when they’re all assembled.

“Yeah,” Seven says, tearing his eyes away from Lotus, “could you make it fast? We’ve got someone hogtied in the trunk.”

The registrar laughs like it’s a joke. Junpei catches Clover’s eye, sees the glint of the car keys clipped on to the chain around her neck. She holds his gaze, and then she winks.


End file.
